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Cash transfers reduced infant mortality in Kenya, study says

Aug 20, 2025, 9:22am EDT
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A mother is seen with her child on Mothers’ Day at Mathare slum in Nairobi, Kenya.
Gerald Anderson/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

One-time transfers of $1000 in cash to households with pregnant women in rural Kenya reduced infant mortality in the area by 48%, new research showed.

The study, led by the University of California-Berkeley and Oxford University, tracked more than 100,000 births and found there was a 45% increase in hospital deliveries after the one-time mobile money transfer from the nonprofit GiveDirectly. It also found that women worked 51% fewer hours in their third trimester and in the months after giving birth, following the intervention.

With USAID cuts in Kenya estimated at around $225 million — 46% of its former budget in the country — there is a significant risk going forward to infant and perinatal health. The study determined that cash interventions should be more widely used in aid efforts, as “a scalable, cost-effective strategy to maximize the impact of limited aid dollars, rapidly save lives, and help achieve these ambitious global health goals without costly delivery infrastructure.”

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